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Israel has enacted a law stating that only Jews have the right to self-determination in the country, which some members of the Arab minority call racist and close to apartheid
. right-wing government, adopted by a vote of 62-55 and two abstentions in the 120-member parliament after months of political argument. Some Arab deputies shouted and tore up documents after the vote
"This is a decisive moment in the annals of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset after the vote. Largely symbolic, the law was promulgated just after the 70th anniversary of the birth of the state of Israel. It states that "Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination".
The bill also removes Arabic from its designation as an official language alongside Hebrew. "Special Status" which allows its continued use within Israeli institutions.
Israeli Arabs are about 1.8 million, or about 20% of the 9 million inhabitants.
The first drafts of the legislation went further. as a discrimination against Israeli Arabs, who have long said that they are treated as second-clbad citizens.
The clauses that were dropped in last-minute political quarrels – and after the objections of the Israeli president and attorney general – would have legalized the establishment of exclusively Jewish communities, and ordered the courts to rule in accordance with the Jewish ritual law when there was no relevant legal precedent.
Instead, a word more vaguely The d version was approved, which says: "The state considers the development of the Jewish colony as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment."
Even after the changes, critics said the new law will deepen the meaning of alienation within the Arab minority.
"I announce with shock and sadness the death of democracy," Ahmed Tibi, an Arab MP, told the press.
Netanyahu defended the law. "We will continue to guarantee civil rights in Israeli democracy but the majority also has rights and the majority decides," he said last week.
"An absolute majority wants to ensure the Jewish character of our state for future generations." The Arab population of Israel is composed mainly of descendants of Palestinians who remained on their land during the conflict between Arabs and Jews that culminated in the 1948 war surrounding the creation of the modern state of Palestine. Israel. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee their homes or flee.
Those who have remained have equal rights before the law, but they claim to be constantly discriminated against, citing inferior services and unjust allowances for education, health and housing. "Alot-Tarshiha, a municipality in northern Israel that was created by linking the Jewish city of Ma'alot and the Arab city of Tarshiha, there was anger among Arab residents.
"I think it's a racist legislation the government Bbadam Bisharah, 71.
Adalah, the Legal Center for the Rights of Arab Minorities in Israel, called the law an attempt to advance the government that creates radical laws and plants seeds to create a state of apartheid. "Ethnic superiority through the promotion of racist policies".
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